A Pitch For SYRIZA Rule

Yanis Varoufakis and James K. Galbraith, both professors at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, co-wrote an article at The New York Times entitled Only the Left Can Save Greece-Only Syriza Can Save Greece that was published on June 23, 2013.

Both economists argued that if the major opposition Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA) took over power that Greece would be better off and, “This wouldn’t be a bad thing for Europe or the United States”.

“If (Alexis Tsipras, head of SYRIZA) succeeds, nothing vital would change for the United States. Syriza doesn’t intend to leave NATO or close American military bases. Of course, American complicity in the Greek dictatorship of 1967 to 1974 hasn’t been forgotten, and any Greek government will naturally disagree with the United States, to a degree, over the Middle East. But the fact is, Greece’s problem today is with Europe, and Mr. Tsipras doesn’t want to pick a fight with Washington,” maintain Galbraith and Varoufakis.

As far as Golden Dawn is concerned both professors write: “SYRIZA plans to fight both rising hunger and a xenophobic neo-Nazi party, Golden Dawn, with school lunches and food stamps. A Syriza government would seek these reforms and the salvation of the European project. And this can be only a good thing for the United States”.

Finally, Galbraith and Varoufakis found this elegant way to close their article to The New York Times: “An unlikely campaign to change the flawed policies that govern the European Union has begun in Greece, a small, proud country that has, in the past, given quite a few ideas to the world — including one, people’s government, that we like to call by its Greek name,” talking of course about Democracy.

1 COMMENT

READ THIS below from New York Times today… Incredible!—-
“Greek EU Loans Plan May Reward Some Crooked Bank Executives”

New York Times by Landon Thomas– June 25, 2013
LONDON — Even as European taxpayers grimace at the escalating cost of bailing out Greece’s banking system, the banks’ top executives are poised to potentially strike it rich.

The plan developed by the Greek government and its international creditors to recapitalize the country’s banks involves an unusual twist as stock offerings go: the new shares in the banks will give investors free and potentially lucrative warrants that will entitle them to buy many more shares in the future at a predetermined price.

Because many of the investors who are expected to participate in the stock program are the same executives who were running the banks at the time of their near collapse, critics see it as a case of bankers being rewarded despite their management missteps. And they say the Greek government is forgoing billions of euros in potential revenue with the way the stock offering is being handled.

Officials of the Hellenic Financial Stability Fund did not respond to questions about the warrant program. Nor did Greece’s international creditors — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — the so-called troika, which helped the stability fund devise the program.